BETHEL PARK — Butler is looking for some scoring — and hopes to find it on its own roster.

The Golden Tornado girls basketball team dropped a 40-29 decision to Bethel Park in the first round of the Bethel Park Holiday Tournament Wednesday afternoon. Butler (4-4) sank only 10 of 38 field goal attempts in the contest.

“That's not going to get it done,” Butler coach Dorothea Epps said. “We're playing pretty good defense, but we're not putting the ball in the basket.

“We're out on the court afraid to make plays. You can't play like that. We've got seniors and other girls on this team who have to step up. We can't rely on a freshman to be our leading scorer every night.”

Freshman forward Julia Baxter made her third varsity start Wednesday and has been the Tornado's leading scorer in each. She had 12 points and 11 rebounds against the Black Hawks.

“If we can find a couple of scorers to go with her, we'll be fine,” Epps said.

Bethel Park (4-3) struggled offensively as well. The Black Hawks managed to sink only 11 of 38 shots in the first three quarters — yet led 29-17 with eight minutes to play.

“This was a weird game,” Bethel Park coach Jonna Burke said. “It couldn't have been a very good game to watch.

“We seemed to be ‘blah' out there all day. Maybe the daytime start played a factor there, I don't know.”

Butler managed only one field goal in the second quarter, yet trailed by only six (17-11) at halftime. The Tornado had more turnovers (12) than points in the first half. Butler had 18 turnovers on the day to Bethel Park's 12.

Point guard Sam Marak went to the bench with two early fouls, but did not stay there long. A rash of turnovers forced Epps to put her back on the floor.

“We couldn't run an offense without her,” the Butler coach said.

After a Natalie Barkus trey pulled Butler within three early in the third quarter, the Black Hawks pulled away. An 8-0 run, fueled by baseline jumpers from Sami Simpson and Maddie Schutte, along with an offensive rebound and stickback by Justine Carroll, produced a double-digit lead.

The Tornado never got closer than nine the rest of the way. Bethel Park's lead peaked at 38-19 when Carroll drained a trey with 6:08 left in the game.

“Butler always plays a good half-court defense and they wouldn't let us run any of our offensive sets,” Burke, who coached Butler from 1995-2003, said. “We began to pull away when we switched to a zone defense and made them shoot from outside.

“We pressured the ball a bit and went to more of a junk offense, getting points off turnovers and things like that.”

Carroll had 11 points and nine rebounds for Bethel. Megan Marecic had nine boards as well as the Black Hawks had a 38-34 rebounding edge.

Jasmine Bailey had six rebounds for Butler, which returns to the Bethel Park gym today to face Chartiers Valley — a 57-51 loser to New Castle — in the 1 p.m. consolation game.

BUTLER 29Makenzie Huey 0-4 2-2 2, Jennifer Barry 1-9 0-0 2, Alyssa DiPippa 0-4 2-4 2, Natalie Barkus 1-2 2-2 5, Morgan McLaughlin 0-0 0-0 0, Sam Marak 1-3 0-0 2, Jasmine Bailey 0-3 0-1 0, Lauren Bresnahan 0-0 0-0 0, Julia Baxter 5-11 2-7 12, Kalynn Callihan 2-3 0-0 4.

Totals: 10-38 8-16 29.

BETHEL PARK 40Lauren Shaffer 1-3 0-0 2, Paige Kochka-Puskar 2-2 1-2 5, Harper Zimmer 2-6 0-0 4, Mariah Penascino 0-5 4-4 4, Megan Marecic 3-13 0-0 6, Sami Simpson 1-2 0-0 2, Justine Carroll 4-13 2-2 11, Maddie Schutte 2-7 0-0 4, Katie Chess 1-1 0-0 2.

Totals: 16-51 7-8 40.

Butler 8 3 6 12—29Bethel Park 10 7 12 11—403-point goals: Butler 1 (Natalie Barkus); Bethel Park 1 (Justine Carroll).

Junior varsity game: Bethel Park, 34-31 (B: Alyssa DiPippa 12, BP: Paige Kochka-Puskar 11)

Thursday: Butler vs. Chartiers Valley, 1 p.m., consolation game of Bethel Park Holiday Tournament